From the Apartment Above Luke's to Currant, Maine, Wednesday Afternoon

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy'd had trouble sleeping last night, in that she really didn't at all. Even moving to the safety of her closet hadn't helped; sure, she'd managed to fall asleep, but only long enough to have a screaming nightmare about zombies and towers and rabbit brains and then she was back up for the night. It wasn't until she noticed the date on her phone that she realized what she was responding to.

Right. Halloween. The trip to LA and then their getaway had messed with her sense of time enough that she hadn't realized how close the holiday was. Kathy used to love Halloween; she still might, if she hadn't been on the island. Last year's little...stunt had left her more than a little fucked up. Turned out her subconscious was better at keeping track of the date than the rest of her. Yay.

After the nightmare, she'd given up on sleep entirely, obsessively watching for signs that the island was going to turn her into an ex again, aware that she wouldn't notice even if it did, and that being paranoid it would was probably a good sign that it hadn't. Once dawn broke and she remained herself, that should have been the end of it - but it wasn't. Kathy had worked herself up into a panic and that wasn't responding to anything useful like 'logic' or 'thinking.' She just knew she had to get out of there. Off the island. Something.

She spent the morning in Baltimore, but when the third shitty zombie costume finally made her break down and cry in public, she realized this wasn't a viable option. Neither was Limbo City; if she was hesitant to visit most days, Halloween itself was a hard pass. That left...Ezra.

Kathy didn't even bother calling, just booked the closest portal, giving her enough time to grab a thing of donuts and go. And the irony of ironies was that Ezra wasn't even home when she got there; nobody answered her increasingly frantic knocks or her abuse of the doorbell. Eventually, she gave up, hoisting herself up to the roof of their porch. Exes couldn't climb, she would be safe on the roof while she waited. Something about that thought process was wrong, but she didn't bother to pinpoint what. Her brain was pinging safe and that was what mattered.

Curling up on the tiny bit of roof, she burrowed into her winter coat and, at some point, fell asleep.

[Ezra's house modded with permission and for said house-modded guy!]

Comments

[smilestopscars]

"Always."

Duh. Had she really expected to get any other answer?

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's certainly an opinion," Kathy said, obligingly bringing not one but both hands up to lose in his dark waves. "Steal my Canadian model firefighters, though, and you'll be grounded from head scritches, just watch."

[smilestopscars]

"Even if I make them happy?" Ezra asked, but his quipping sounded distracted. His sigh sounded delighted, though, and his eyes were closed, and he leaned into the touch.

Needy, but without shame.

[spin_kick_snap]

She gave him just a little more nail as she worked her way over his scalp. "But what about my happiness?" she pointed out.

[smilestopscars]

The noise he made was obscene.

Quiet, though.

"I trust you to make your own more than I trust the Canadian model firefighters to."

[spin_kick_snap]

Still had Kathy shifting slightly in his lap, though. Hnngh.

"I dunno," she said wryly. "I'm pretty sure I'd pt my money on those Canadian model firefighters."

In addition to being Canadians, models, nerds, and firefighters, they were also probably a lot more together than she was.

[smilestopscars]

Please, no shifting. That could create a Problem.

"I wouldn't," Ezra murmured. "I'm not so sure they would've figured out to come here rather than to stay in a place that was making them anxious. Of course I don't know them, but it's a feeling I have."

[spin_kick_snap]

Then no making noises that were inclined to make her shift! She knew those noises, Ezra, and they were permanently associated with things that weren't her hands in your hair.

Well, okay, sometimes they--NEVER MIND.

"I think that maybe they're just not lucky enough to have a place like this to come to when they're...anxious." Sounded so much better than 'scared out of their wits,' yes. "I'd say they're pretty, not smart, but I like smart boys too much to fantasize about dumb ones."

[smilestopscars]

"Well, regardless of their intellectual prowess," Ezra replied, tracing a spiral against the back of her shoulder, "you're still smarter than them."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, that I won't argue with," Kathy said with a happy sigh. "I like being the smart one. Gives me something to feel special about."

[smilestopscars]

"You are plenty special," Ezra informed her lightly. "And you're very welcome here."

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm glad you still want me around, even though I'm not a Canadian firefighting model," Kathy said with a small chuckle. "More like a Californian crimefighting basketcase. Except I no longer fight crime."

She sighed and slid one hand down so it was massaging his neck. "At least now you'll be able to perpetrate any future stereo threats unhindered by overenthusiastic do-gooders."

[smilestopscars]

"Oh, that wasn't so bad," Ezra said, while his head tilted forward to give her hand a little more room. "I'm not really in the business of stero theft anymore. But if I was, I'd be delighted to be stopped by a do-gooder. Provided they were as cute and as easily distracted."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You know, it's been long enough that I can cop to being a little jealous," Kathy said, amused. "Embarrassing as it is to admit."

[smilestopscars]

"Jealous?"

He sounded quietly amused, too.

"Of what?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"You stealing a stereo for Dante," Kathy said. "It was dumb on, like, a hundred levels, starting with the fact that I didn't want a stolen stereo and going from there, but...yeah. Jealous, at least a little."

[smilestopscars]

Ezra's laugh was a rough and quiet sound. "Well," he said, "I hope winning in the long run has helped with that at least a little."

He probably shouldn't have said that. It didn't even fully work in the context.

But the whole mess of their intertwined relationships... It was complicated.

[spin_kick_snap]

"So did growing up a lot and realizing that relationships weren't zero sum games," Kathy said with a small chuckle of her own. "But then, I never wanted to win, exactly. I was just always afraid of losing. Now I'd settle for a three-way--"

She winked at him.

"--Tie."

She was hilarious.

[smilestopscars]

Not really, but Ezra wasn't going to let her know that.

He huffed a vaguely amused noise and shook his head. "You already have your threeway, darling." That was the winning part.

[spin_kick_snap]

Ah. She'd thought he'd meant with him, considering how much easier their relationship was currently.

"I do," she said softly, a hand sliding down to trace over the lines of his face. "And maybe I'm just greedy, but I'm trying to find a way to carve out room for one more."

Not as a boyfriend - not that she though Ezra would even want such a thing - but as more than a friend.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra tilted his face into the touch, on instinct. His eyes closed again. "I know, cupcake."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Good," Kathy said softly. "I just - you matter, Ezra. Whether we're flirting or fucking or just the most platonic of friends, you matter."

She wouldn't be here if he didn't. He wouldn't be safety if she didn't.

[smilestopscars]

"I know."

His voice was quieter. Softer, too.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy knew she was on the verge of talking too much. Telling him stuff he already knew and bowling him over with words. Instead, she just kissed him, light and gentle and a butterfly.

[smilestopscars]

Ezra was surprised when it happened. Hadn't been expecting that move.

But then it happened, and he sort of... melted into it, responding in kind.